Email Marketing Tactics #18: Define a Send Frequency

Send frequency is an important aspect of email marketing. Defining a send frequency serves two purposes:

• It sets a production schedule.
• Provides communication delivery expectations to recipients.

Setting a production schedule is critical. The #1 biggest killer of email marketing campaigns is that the person running the campaign didn’t set a production schedule. When an email marketing campaign is run without a frequency schedule it is usually chronically late or has no discernable pattern. Inconsistent production decreases interest in the communications and builds frustration in producing them. Once this trend starts it’s only a matter of time before the email campaign is scrapped.

Delivery expectations are important for recipients. There is no set rule for send schedule. A general rule is that there should be at least a monthly communication but no more than weekly. This applies to the majority of email campaigns. Having said that, there are successful newsletters that are produced quarterly and for sophisticated email marketers, multiple emails a week cause no negative impacts on results. Having a send schedule helps define consistency and builds credibility. A communication that is always off schedule gives the impression that they are produced haphazardly and not a high quality.

Set a frequency schedule and define production actions that need to take place to meet that schedule. Sticking to it will ensure high quality communications that recipients are expecting.